Eight things that made Outlook 2015 great

We could have been accused of stalking the drum 'n' bass trio (Stray, Halogenix and Sabre) during our trip to Pula – we saw them that much! Their 20/20 boat party was the first time, where they linked up with Jon Phonics and Fracture, dropping a shed load of hefty, halftime steppers to ignite screw faces. Stray gave us some majestic swagger with his recent Exit release, 'Paradise', with Halogenix and Sabre rolling out some proper thunder before Fracture stepped up to drop DJ Spinn, DJ Rashad and Danny Brown's footwork diamond 'Dubby'.

Skip forward one day and the boys were navigating the nautical rave once again for Critical Music with label boss Kasra, Foreign Concept, Hyroglifics (who IL played back-to-back with), Enei and Emperor. They played a bit more vigorous this time round, but still found space for this year's smooth groove 'Twenty Questions'. Thank you, fellas.

Bristol kind of dominated Outlook.

There was the Tectonic takeover of The Moat, celebrating 10 years of Pinch's pioneering imprint. There was also the label's boat party, which is something of a legendary affair and this year featured on-point performances from Adrian Sherwood (!!!), Ishan Sound, Riko Dan and daddy Pinch himself.

Kahn & Neek's Bandulu imprint blew up a boat with the help of Stormzy (see above) and the pair also played together on The Clearing and took their Gorgon Sound project to Mungo's Arena too.

Mungo's was also the site of a set from famed South West outfit Dubkasm and they also threw it down on the Channel One boat party.

Everywhere you went there was the sound of Bristol and a wealth of talent eminating from the city.

Oh, Kenny Dixon Jr., you beautiful man. The Madlib Carnvial arrived in Pula on the final night with Madlib, Pete Rock, J Rocc and Moodymann bringing fine flavours from across the Atlantic and the chilled-as-ice latter put on a fine spectacle to bring The Clearing to a close. Granted, it wasn't as rammed as it had been earlier on, but the Detroit DJ massaged our weary festival brains with a delicious mix of trippy hip hop instrumentals and luscious deep house, even dropping Ol' Dirty Bastard's 'Baby I Got Your Money' for a synchronised sing-a-long. He's so laidback he even left it to one of his two dancing friends to mix in some records while he (we guess) left the stage for a leak. Shouts to the lonesome 60-or-so-year-old vibing out behind us, too. Respect.

DMZ, the party and label made famous by Mala, Coki and Loefah, also celebrates 10 years in 2015 and was given an evening on The Clearing to showcase its sound and legacy.

Artists who have played the party over the years were given sets, including Pinch, Distance, Kode9, Silkie, Quest, Hactcha, Youngsta, Chef and N-Type, all going back-to-back in the 'versus' fashion that's made so many of the DMZ line-ups famous. They all played to a few thousand people, running riddims beneath a clear and warm summer night sky. It felt like what mainstage dubstep could have been, had its noisier brostep incarnation not stolen the hearts and dancing feet of so, so many. Stood there, soaking up the warm bass and wiling out with a field full of heads, we got a taste of what might have been had OG dubstep taken a more subtle path into the mainstream.

Then there was Youngsta's set on The Void, an area dedicated to a towering custom-built system from the speaker manufacturer. Thousands of people were also in attendance there as the long-serving selector rolled out heavy bass cuts that began at 140bpm and ended up around 170bpm. Low-end vibrations rolled through the mass that had gathered and it was life-affirming to take part in such a big scale event soundtracked by really, really fucking good underground music. Salute Outlook.

Registration for the 2016 edition of Outlook is open now